Samsung Releases Samsung Pay In The Wild

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Samsung has started trialling Samsung Pay in South Korea with a view to launching the the service across its homeland soon as it looks to catch up in the mobile payments space following the launch of Apple Pay.

However the new service is only available to select customers using a Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge device, who have exclusive access for now.

Pay now

In a dig at Apple Pay, Samsung claims that its service “will be accepted in more stores than any other mobile payment service in Korea”.

“It’s simple, safe and fast, so you can get on with your day,” it boasted. “Samsung Pay brings us closer than ever to a world without wallets.”

Revealed at Mobile World Congress back in March, Samsung Pay marks the company’s first full entry into the mobile payments market

Rather than just using just Near Field Communication (NFC), as seen in systems such as Apple Pay, Samsung’s system also packs in magnetic secure transmission, which mimics magnetic-strip payment systems, meaning any retailer that currently accepts credit, debit or NFC payments can adopt the technology

Samsung estimates that Apple Pay reaches only ten percent of merchants in the US alone and believes there is a huge opportunity to be taken advantage of.